Grass Description
Grows along streams, gullies, and roadsides, gravelly to sandy areas in sagebrush and open woodlands, moderately dry open places.
General Description
Robust plants grow in clumps 1 to 3 feet wide, are rhizomatous and usually bright green. Stems are hairy, up to 7 feet tall, 1/4 inch thick and densely arranged. Basin wildrye is the largest cool-season perennial bunchgrass native to the western U.S.
Strongly tufted; seedheads are thick spikes with mostly 2 to 4 spikelets per node; lemmas hairy, awnless or awned tipped, blades 3 to 12 mm wide; culms 70 to 270 cm tall.
Flower Characteristics
Seedheads 6 to 10 inches long, dense, unbranched cylindrical spike with up to 35 nodes, each node having 2 to 7 spikelets per node, spikelets 3 to 7 flowered.
Vegetative Characteristics
Basin wildrye has leaf blades 15 to 25 inches long and up to 3/4 inch wide.
The early growth and abundant production of basin wildrye make it a valuable source of forage for livestock and wildlife.